A Concert & A Mental Test – Part 1: Concert

           Even though this happened over a week ago, I’m still so angry about things that every time I tried to write, I end up deleting it.  It seems as if White Cedars dislikes the idea of me moving in as much as I’m disliking this move.  I mean, asking me to take a mental test – oh, excuse me “psychological profile” -- before allowing me to go to school seems a bit much.  I mean, wouldn’t you be angry if you were “asked” to take a mental test? 

So, how do I begin?  Let’s see….I guess it started right after White Cedars got those test results.  I did really well on the tests, and the administrators were a little surprised.  They hadn’t expected me to score as well as their middle schoolers.  The problem was that I scored more like a High School student.  According to Aunt Lina, I’m a dilemma for them.  These educators expected me to be a country bumpkin because I was homeschooled by a relative-- a Native American, to boot. And suddenly these tests say I’m more educated than their precious children are.  They certainly do not want to place me in a classroom based on my knowledge.  So they sent Aunt Lina e-mails about my need for “social skills opportunities” and “psychological assessment.”  Aunt Lina was furious.  As a family, we rarely think about our so-called “minority status.”  It’s not as if our skin color makes anything obvious.  Nor are we “trying to pass” as anything but who we are – people.  Yes, our ancestors were oppressed by the government.  But I was brought up to believe that it’s the content of my character that defines me as a person. 

So now some White Cedars guidance counselor was going to assess me according to some “behavior profile test” in order to justify placing me with my age group.  So Aunt Lina was going to take me to NJ last Monday, but then my cousin Lizzie asked me to go to a free concert at the Cranberry Festival in NJ on Sunday with her friend Kara, which was the day before White Cedars had scheduled the “psychological review”.  Last year, for her birthday, the three of us were supposed to see this band “Care Bears On Fire” in Hoboken.  But I got sick, so she and Kara went without me.  This would make up for the time I missed.  Aunt Lina saw this as an opportunity for a couple of days to herself. 

Suddenly a Sunday concert was becoming an overnight road trip.  Aunt Lina called an artist friend of hers to see if we could all crash at her apartment.  Once that was settled, Kara, Lizzie, and I were going out for the weekend.

Kara’s a friend of Lizzie’s, not a cousin, but Aunt Lina trusted her.  Kara’s eighteen, a little older than Lizzie is, so she’ll be driving.  They spent Saturday night at the farm with us.

We got up early that Sunday and hit the road at seven.  Aunt Lina had given us some money for gas and food, so we had breakfast at a diner before we hit the Turnpike, and were in Bordentown by 10:30.  There was street parking, like a block away from the festivities. This Cranberry Festival is a yearly thing that’s held in this small NJ town that reminds me of Pennsylvania.  You know, a main street with stores that are NOT national chains, streets with houses that all look different, with big lawns and big yards, maybe an old car out back, and a couple of houses even had chicken coops in the yard.  I felt right at home.

The band list & times

The local music shop had started as a record store almost half a century ago, and was the sponsor for the bands.  There were four bands on the list for the day….”Care Bears On Fire” was second on the bill, and this band that Kara liked, “Spanking Charlene, was up last.  The music started at 12:30, so we walked  around checking out the place.

There was no stage – the musicians would just play in the street, which was blocked off for pedestrians and vendors.  There were booths selling all sorts of stuff – pies, cookies & cakes, jams, jellies, relishes and sauces, clothing, jewelry, antiques, gadgets, wine (we couldn’t try any, but it was there—cranberry wine)…It was like a country fair.  I tried preserves, fudge (yum), teas, and other things, and bought a jar of cranberry relish for Aunt Lina and for Dorothy, whose house we’d be crashing at.

A little before two o’clock, we got back to the stage, where “Care Bears On Fire” were setting up.  The regular bass player, Jena, wasn’t playing today – some guy was taking her place.

Care Bears On Fire's drummer, Izzy

                                                       

The band's lead singer Sophie

She's got a great smile!

           Not too many people were hanging out for the music (I couldn’t believe it, but they just weren’t), so we were right up front.  I managed to get some excellent photos.  They sang “Everybody Else,” “Barbie Eat a Sandwich,” “Super Teen” and “ATM,” as well as some others.  Those are my favorites, so that’s why I remember them.  It’s girl punk, and I loved dancing in the street right in front of the band!  It was so wild.

            We walked around instead of watching the next band.  We were hungry, so we got these grilled cheesy things called “MozzArepas” – it’s like mozzarella on cornbread only there’s real corn in the bread, and it’s fried, kind of like a potato pancake, only not greasy….oh heck, it’s just delicious.  And they were a cheap         lunch at like $4 each.  There was this cool soda vendor that sold a steel mug that was refillable all day. So we got one, and shared the unlimited soda.  There was cream, root beer, grape…all made with real cane sugar (no corn syrup!) and it was all delicious.  Kara got to keep the mug – it was nothing special, just shiny, but she liked it.  We certainly got our money’s worth on that deal – we must have refilled that thing ten or twelve times!

            At four o’clock, the last band came on – Spanking Charlene.  I’d never heard of them, but Kara said that “Little Steven,” who has this radio show on Sunday nights, called “The Underground Garage” liked the band so much that he produced their single. They won a big contest for unsigned bands.  Their sound is great.  

 

Charlene of Spanking Charlene

Charlene's smile

The lead singer, Charlene, has a nice smile, and an unbelievable voice, but she’s not some plastic mass-produced female vocalist that you’d expect to see fronting a band.  She’s a big lady – tall, full bodied, and she looks real, not like she stepped out of a salon or was dressed by a stylist or something.  Charlene looks like she’d be at home tending bar at the Polish Hall, except there she’d be called “Stasha” and be accepted as “one of the guys,” and probably beat half of them at pool or poker.

Her voice makes me think of Janis Joplin or Mamma Cass…people who would NEVER make it as singers in this day of “American Idol” image and video.  The rest of the band was cool and they rocked. 

It’s interesting seeing a band you’ve never heard before.  “Spanking Charlene” is punk rockish, too.  They sang, and Charlene talked about the places she’s played, and things that influenced her songs… Hey, this is my first concert without Aunt Lina, and I feel so cool, wild, and alive.  I think I needed this almost as much as a shift to cougar.  I’m getting a lot of pent-up energy out.

There’s a reason this band’s up last – there are more people hanging around to listen now, and while we are still up front to see the band, we’re a little off to the side instead of front & center.  They sang “Dismissed With A Kiss,”  “Canarsie” & “I Hate Girls”.  That last one has a cool little “La-la” lyric that made me laugh.  They closed the concert (and the festival) with a cover of “Runaround Sue” which had the three of us bumping hips and pumping fists and singing along.  What a way to end the day!  We got a last mug of cream soda, then the cops were clearing the street to open it up to cars again. 

We got to Dorothy’s in some town called Garfield by nine, where we had some kielbasa she’d made for us, then we spread out our sleeping bags and fell right to sleep.  Wow, what a day!  Too bad I have to take a mental test tomorrow.

Until my next post…

Randi